Patent Application
20150273804
The present invention relates to a method of forming a composite wood product and the associated wood composite product that is manufactured by the method that is described.
Wood beams are generally cut from naturally growing trees. However, there certainly is a limit on the supply of trees due primarily to the substantially long time for a tree to reach maturity. Also, the supply of natural wood is limited by the deforestation that is now occurring in many parts of the world.
There are thus several alternate materials that have been developed to produce composite lumber products. For example, wood scraps, inferior quality lumber materials and even sawdust has been used in particular processes. This technique has been utilized to manufacture particle board from small wood particles and to manufacture plywood from wood veneer sheets.
One process that has been developed involves coating strands of wood with an adhesive and subjecting the material to heat and compression. One example of this is found in U.S. Pat. No. 4,061,819. Similar products are disclosed as manufactured from a bamboo material. Refer, for example to U.S. Pat. No. 5,543,197.
Another material that has been used for composite material is cork. In this regard, reference may also be made to U.S. Pat. No. 8,541,085 that shows a technique incorporating both bamboo and cork.
Although some of these techniques have been successful in replacing natural wood products, there is still a need for a substitute product that is less expensive and that is at least as equally strong as a natural wood material.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an improved wood composite product that can be manufactured less expensively and yet has sufficient strength and rigidity.
To accomplish the foregoing and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention there is provided a method of forming a composite wood product comprising the steps of:
forming a top layer of a plastic material;
forming a bottom layer of a composite material that is comprised of a combination of a plastic material and a straw material; and
securing the top and bottom layers to form the composite wood product.
In accordance with other aspects of the present invention the step of forming a top layer of a plastic material includes mixing at least a PVC resin and a heat stabilizer; including an epoxy soybean oil and powder, and high speed mixing the epoxy soybean oil and powder with the PVC resin and heat stabilizer, after the temperature reaches 90-100 Celsius Degree, starting a cooling mixer, then unload the materials from high speed mixing into the cooling mixer, and at the same time, unload a pre-measured powder into the cooling mixer and mixing for 8-10 minutes; including providing a Banbury machine, unload a predetermined amount of materials into the Banbury mixing chamber, plasticizing for 8-10 minutes, then unload the materials into a feeding machine for directing to the roll mill; including feeding the material from the Banbury mixer into a roll mill for further plasticizing, keeping the temperature between 180-190 Celsius, wait until the material is equally plasticized on the roll mill, with substantially no visible powder, then it's ready to send to the Calender; including transporting the material to a calendar, adjust the roll spacing and speed, establishing the temperature of the roll to between 180-190 Celsius, further plasticize the material delivered to the Calender until the film reaches its uniformly desired thickness; wherein the step of forming a bottom layer of a composite material includes providing an extruder and setting the extruder to operate at on the order of 170 Celsius, melt-plasticize the material from the hopper of the extruder, and extrude through a mould to a vacuum pitching device; including vacuum pitching the material using a vacuum pitching device to provide cooling pitching with recycling cooling water; including providing a towing machine to tow out the wood-plastic composite from the cooling pitching device, and deliver to a cutting machine; and wherein the step of securing the layers includes a glueing step.
In accordance with the present invention there is also provided a composite board product comprising:
a top layer of a plastic material;
a bottom layer of a composite material that is comprised of a combination of a plastic material and a straw material;
said top and bottom layers attached to form the composite wood product.
In accordance with other aspects of the present invention the top layer is formed of a plastic material includes at least a PVC resin and a heat stabilizer; including an epoxy soybean oil and powder, and a high speed mixer for the epoxy soybean oil, powder, PVC resin and heat stabilizer, after the temperature reaches 90-100 Celsius Degree, and a cooling mixer, wherein the material is unloaded the materials from high speed mixer into the cooling mixer, and including a pre-measured powder disposed into the cooling mixer and mixing for 8-10 minutes; including a Banbury machine, unloading a predetermined amount of materials into the Banbury mixing chamber, plasticizing for 8-10 minutes, then unloading the material into a feeding machine for directing to a roll mill; wherein the material from the Banbury mixer is disposed into the roll mill for further plasticizing, keeping the temperature between 180-190 Celsius, wait until the material is equally plasticized on the roll mill, with substantially no visible powder, then it's ready to send to a calender; wherein the material is coupled to the calendar, the calendar is adjusted for roll spacing and speed, the temperature of the roll is between 180-190 Celsius, further plasticizing the material delivered to the calender until the film reaches its uniformly desired thickness; including an extruder operating at on the order of 170 Celsius to melt-plasticize the material from the hopper of the extruder, and a vacuum pitching device; including a vacuum pitching device for vacuum pitching the material to provide cooling pitching with recycling cooling water; including a towing machine to tow out the wood-plastic composite from the cooling pitching device, and a cutting machine; and wherein the layers are laminated.
In accordance with still other aspects of the present invention the top layer is formed of a plastic material including at least a PVC resin and a heat stabilizer; the top layer is also formed of an epoxy soybean oil and powder; the top layer also includes diisononyl phthatale; the heat stabilizer includes a Ca—Zn composite; the straw is selected from the group of dry stocks or stems of grain products including, but not limited to, wheat, rye, oats and barley; the straw is selected from the group of rice straw and grasses including sisal, flax, hemp, and other lignocelluloses; the bottom layer also includes a heat stabilizer; the bottom layer also includes a foaming agent; and the bottom layer also includes a lubricant agent.
One of the important considerations of the present invention is the use of a straw material that is fabricated into one layer in association with a second layer that is a plastic material. The straw material is considered to be comprised of dry stocks or stems of grain products including, but not limited to, wheat, rye, oats and barley. Other materials that are considered as falling within the parameters of the present invention include, but are not limited to, rice straw and grasses including sisal, flax, hemp, and other lignocelluloses.
It should be understood that the drawings are provided for the purpose of illustration only and are not intended to define the limits of the disclosure. In the drawings depicting the present invention, all dimensions are to scale. The foregoing and other objects and advantages of the embodiments described herein will become apparent with reference to the following detailed description when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which the sole diagram is a block diagram illustrating the steps in providing the wood composite material of the present invention.
The present invention relates to an improvement in an engineered wood composite material that is durable, easy to manufacture and provides an effective wood appearing surface. The following are a series of steps that are used in performing the method of fabrication of the wood composite material of the present invention. In regard to the method disclosed herein refer to the sole FIGURE which is a block diagram illustrating the steps used in fabricating the engineered wood composite material of the present invention. Also, there is shown in Tables I and II herein a listing of preferred ingredients for each of the wood plastic composite layer and the PVC layer, respectively. Here are the Tables:
In the following descriptions each step is identified by a reference number and the following is a list of reference numbers with associated descriptions related to each reference number and associated method step. For the most part each of the steps that are set forth is performed by known equipment as will be identified herein.
Wood-plastic composite layer
2. Raw material (refer to Table I)
For the above procedures there have been found to be certain steps that are important to the proper operation of the method of the present invention, and to produce the desired product. Thus, the follow description provides some further details of these steps and materials along with the associated equipment that is used. This includes such steps and equipment as:
Device used: A cone shaped twin screw extruder, preferably with 5 heating sections.
In accordance with another embodiment of the present invention a sound absorbing and attenuating layer may also be used in the structure that is formed. This may be a foam pad layer that is essentially disposed under the bottom or composite layer. In the sole drawing this may be represented by a further step, not shown in the drawing, of the fabrication of such a foam sound absorbing layer and its introduction at step 30 so that the step 31 of cold pressing also involves the gluing and pressing of this third sound absorbing layer, along with the other two layers.
Having now described a limited number of embodiments of the present invention, it should now be apparent to those skilled in the art that numerous other embodiments and modifications thereof are contemplated as falling within the scope of the present invention, as defined by the appended claims.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 201410122932.3 | Mar 2014 | CN | national |
This application is a continuation-in-part (CIP) of U.S. Ser. No. 14/272,841 filed on May 8, 2014 which claims priority to Chinese Application No. 201410122932.3 which was filed on Mar. 31, 2014 and each of which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parent | 14272841 | May 2014 | US |
| Child | 14487690 | US |
